


Learning Curve

by impulsewriter



Series: Learning Curve [1]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bart Allen Needs A Hug, Bart Allen is Kid Flash, Blind Bart Allen, Family Feels, Flashbacks, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Married Barry Allen/Iris West, Minor Original Character(s), Past Relationship(s), goes in depth about some deaths in the alternate timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:55:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22230658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impulsewriter/pseuds/impulsewriter
Summary: They never had the consequences. Their vision was fine, because their bodies remembered to slow down. They could control that. But Bart was born from two speedsters. So, when his aunt and dad accidentally break his goggles, Bart has to come clean, about why he always wears them.It was just a learning curve. Just like Wally had always told him.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Bart Allen, Bart Allen & Artemis Crock, Bart Allen & Don Allen, Bart Allen & Iris West, Bart Allen & Jay Garrick & Joan Garrick, Bart Allen & Wally West, Bart Allen & Will Harper | Clone Roy Harper, Dawn Allen & Bart Allen, Lian Harper & Bart Allen
Series: Learning Curve [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1600207
Comments: 25
Kudos: 130





	1. Chapter 1

He didn't think much of it. He _always_ had his goggles on anyways, so what did it matter, on whether or not they knew? In his timeline, these kinds of goggles meant the wearer was blind, and the goggles were compensating in a specific way that let them see.

In a 'not quite like Daredevil but better' kind of way.

(Though, he supposed it explained why Joan and Jay occasionally asked him if he'd like to take them off, rather than wear them all the time.)

So he didn't think of it, when he took them off to go into the bathroom and take a nice, hot shower – something he made sure he familiarized himself with before trusting himself to shower without his goggles – he didn't expect anyone to sneak into his room and take his goggles.

He heard a tiny baby shriek, and the adults running, and then he heard scolding. Hesitating, he finished his shower, and went to his room. He dressed with ease – something he'd been doing his whole life, since he first became blind when he was five – and reached for where he left his goggles.

Except they weren't there.

He thought of the tiny baby shriek, and felt a slight panic in his heart. He slowly reached up, to smooth his hair down in a way that it covered the mechanical ports in his temples that connected to his goggles, and reached his hand out to feel for the wall.

He walked slowly, and heard Iris, Joan, and Jay talking.

“ _What are these for?_ ” Iris asked.

“ _We don't know. He's never talked about it. He never takes them off, except when he takes a shower. And even then, he only just started leaving them in his room, rather than in the bathroom, so nobody could take them._ ” Joan admitted.

“ _They look like the start of a usb drive._ ” Jay hummed, and Bart felt his heart racing far faster than normal.

“Um. Where are my goggles?” He asked, walking into the room, hand on the door frame. He heard Iris gasp from the surprise, and he hoped they turned to him.

“Ah, right here.” Jay said, “Dawn got a hold of them, however.” Bart felt his stomach twist into knots.

“Are... they okay...?” He asked, worried.

“They broke, when Don ran into her.” Iris admitted, “I'm sorry Bart. We'll replace them.” Bart let out a small, terrified noise, and then he felt someone hugging him, and he tensed from the surprise.

It was quiet a moment.

“Look at me.” Joan said gently, and Bart hesitated, but tilted his head upwards towards his guardian. “Oh, _sweetheart_... Why didn't you tell us?”

“I... I forgot, that... that you guys didn't _have_ mods, and... and when I did, it was... after a month...” Bart admitted, looking downwards. Well, sort of. “I was scared.”

“Joan?” Iris asked, worried.

“Bart's blind.” Joan said, and Jay sighed.

“That explains the goggles. They helped you see, didn't they?” Jay asked, and Bart nodded.

“Kind of.” He confirmed, “Mostly... It happened when I was really little. Wally taught me how to fight without sight, and Aunt Dawn got the goggles when I was ten, so I got surgery for it.”

“May I see?” Iris asked, now by him, and Bart hesitated, but moved his hair. He felt fingers gentle on his head, tilting it to the side a bit, and knew someone was looking at the mechanical port in his temple.

“How do you shower with these?” Joan asked, worried.

“There's covers over them.” Bart said, “The connectors on my goggles register against it, so they move, to let them connect. That's what the surgeon told us, at least, when I got them. I've never had any issues, so I never worried about it.”

“What about in the winter?” Jay asked, frowning.

“I wear a hat.” Bart replied.

“Can you get around without your goggles?” Iris asked.

“Technically yes.” Bart said, “It's... kind of hard? I haven't done it in a while.”

That was the downside of having a mod – you ended up relying on it far too much, but with how his timeline had been...

You needed a mod, to survive, or else you'd die.

They didn't need to know any of that.

He was kept in the kitchen, being gently questioned, for about an hour, before Bart was able to actually hold his goggles, and feel where they broke.

One of the lenses was cracked, right down the middle of it, and they were also snapped in half.

Yeah, there was no repairing that.

(So much for being a vigilante – at least they broke _after_ saving Barry, _after_ destroying the Reach, _after_ his mission was complete.)

His comm went off, and he frowned, even as he pulled it out.

No voice came, which meant it was a text. Normally, his goggles would handle it, offering a strange translation inside his head, telling him what was going on in the chatroom, but now...

“Dammit...” He muttered, staring blankly in the general direction of his comm, frowning.

“Here, let me see.” Iris took the comm from him, and probably read the message. “Barry said you need to meet him at the Tower.” Bart hesitated, at that, and Jay got up.

“I'll take you.” The man said, and Bart felt upset, but he knew he wouldn't make it to the Zeta on his own.

He got dressed, and let Jay hold his hand, as they ran to the Zeta tube quickly.

(That Jay had his goggles in hand, hopeful that someone could fix them, was something Bart was unaware of.)

“ _Jay Garrick, A13. Kid Flash, B23._ ” The AI announced their arrival, and Bart could almost _feel_ the confusion and concern from whoever was in the room.

“Is... everything alright?” Black Canary asked.

“Not really.” Jay said, “Turns out, these goggles? Gives Bart the ability to see.” All the small noises of people talking or doing something stopped, even as Bart wondered why Jay brought the goggles. They couldn't be _fixed_ , so why bother?

“ _What_... are you talking about...?” Barry asked, confusion in his voice. Bart could practically hear his frown.

“I'm blind.” Bart said, “I have been since I was five. I got the mod when I was ten.”

“... Holy shit.” He heard Arrowette say, and he briefly wondered who all was there.

“I... think we're gonna sit this one out, Canary.” Barry said, clearly processing the news.

“I think that's for the best.” Black Canary said.

“Aw man, I wanted to practice!” Arrowette complained.

“Wait, it's just training?” Bart asked, “Pfft, I can do that, easy! Wally trained me to fight without my eyesight! I still know how to do _that_!”

“No way. Not uh.” Barry said.

“Aw, but Grandpaaaa!” Bart whined, “ _Wally_ would've let me!”

“Wally was a certified mess.” Artemis said, amusement in her voice. “Though, I have to admit, I kind of want to see a blind kid go off against an archer.”

“ _No_.” Barry and Green Arrow said together. Bart crossed his arms over his chest in a pout, not caring that he was in the Watchtower in front of who knew how many members of the League and Team. He heard someone sigh – either Jay or Barry, if Bart were being honest with himself – before he felt a hand on his head.

“Do any of you think there's a way to repair these?” Jay asked, probably holding out the goggles.

“Can I see?” Robin asked, and Bart heard his goggles being passed to the older teenager. “How do they work?” Bart pulled his mask down, and held his hair away, showing the port on one of his temples.

“They connect to these.” He said, and he soon had hands touching him, and he flinched back on instinct.

“Shit – _sorry_ , my bad!” Robin said, “Can I-?”

“Yeah...” Bart said, a bit embarrassed that he'd _flinched_ when his _friend_ touched him.

He was in the fucking Watchtower, probably the safest place in this space sector, and he _flinched_. What a dumbass he was.

Robin's gloved fingers gently brushed against his skin, and he felt his hair being brushed away from the metal in his temple, and he could feel Robin's breath as the older boy looked at it.

“Huh... Glass?” Robin asked, tapping on something that made a small _dunk_ sound. “No, it's _plastic_?” He sounded confused, and a bit concerned.

“What else would it be?” Arrowette asked.

“Metal, that matches the equipment used to connect the goggles to... what?” Robin asked, as he pulled away from Bart. His voice shifted, and Bart figured he was looking at his goggles now. “How does this all work?”

“Connects to my brain.” Bart said, “It's really sketchy, since it was illegal, but mods were kind of necessary to some people, especially _blind_ people, so when Aunt Dawn found the goggles, she and Aunt- she and my other aunt, they looked for a brain surgeon that focused on mods, specifically. I was ten, when they did it.”

“ _What the fuck_?” Artemis asked, clearly freaked out now. “They performed _sketchy brain surgery_ on a _ten year old_!?”

“Uh, yeah, 'cause, again, mods were _necessary_.”

“You functioned for five years without it.” Black Canary said, and Bart could hear her frown.

“Not really. I could _defend_ myself, up until I was nine, when I finally was able to actually perform in a fight without problems, but overall function? That's hard.” Bart said, “And where I came from? Anyone disabled gets fucked over, by just about everyone.”

He didn't mention Wally, moving to protect him, from an angry Firestorm, who blamed Bart for them getting caught by the Ravagers, resulting in the death of his brother. He didn't mention Firestorm killing Wally, or that Firestorm blamed Bart for that, too.

(Or that he still blamed himself for it, too. He now got Wally killed in _both_ timelines.)

“Well... I can probably fix them?” Robin said, “It'll take a while though.”

“Robin, I was pretty much sure that they weren't going to get fixed, so I'll deal.” Bart shrugged in response. “If you can fix them, great, if not, it's not that big of a deal? I'll just learn how to function without them again.”

And he would. He'd done it before, and he'd do it again.

It was just a learning curve.

Just like Wally always used to tell him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bart's getting frustrated, and opens up to Iris about a member of his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, and might go back and rewrite it, and move this to a, like, idk, different thing where all the "rejected" chapters go, but if I don't post it now, I probably never will, so here you go. Chapter 2.
> 
> ~~(this isn't even version 1 of chapter 2, this is the second draft, so I'm just shoving it at you all to be done with it)~~

Bart had, understandably, been benched when they'd gotten home from the Watchtower. Jay and Joan and Iris had talked to Barry about what happened, and what Bart had told them, and Bart knew it was _important_ for them to know.

But he was still pretty scared. He was pretty familiar with the house by now, though, so it was okay, that he couldn't use his mod. He walked calmly, with a hand on the wall. His toddler dad and aunt were upset, when they were told the goggles helped Bart see, and that he couldn't without them, but Bart had cheered them up when he told them he didn't need to see to love them to pieces.

They were absolutely adorable kids.

A week, after his goggles had broken, made him restless. He knew it had spread around the Team and League that he was blind; he doubted Arrowette would ever keep it to herself, even if Robin was actually crash about everything he lied about.

But he was _bored_ , because he wasn't just benched from patrols, but from _training_ , because his grandparents and the Garricks were hesitant on letting him _train_ , even though he's said multiple times that Wally trained him in his timeline, that he could train without problems.

' _Learning curve. It's a learning curve for them._ ' He kept thinking, whenever Barry would give a hard _absolutely not_ , when he asked to go to Mount Justice or the Watchtower to train.

The worst part was _school_. All the school had really been told was that Bart had a 'real bad accident', and was blind, and would be home schooled for a bit. A few kids had sent cards, saying 'good luck' and 'get well' and things like that, and while Bart wanted to appreciate it, he really wanted to know why the hell the other kids thought sending cards to a kid who was blind was a good idea.

Finally, going on two weeks after the loss of his goggles, Bart snapped.

“ _I'M NOT USELESS!_ ” He shouted, when Barry told him no, yet again. It was a quiet for a moment, and Bart knew his grandfather was probably shocked at his outburst. “I'm not useless! I can train! I can fight! Wally _taught me_ so I could do it without needing to be able to see! I'm not useless! I- I'm not...” His voice cracked, and he felt arms around him.

“You're right.” Barry said, “You're right, you're _not_ useless. It's just... hard, sometimes, for us to remember that to you, this is _normal_. It's not for us, and I'm sorry, if we made you feel like you're useless. You've lived with this for most of your life, but we've been living with it for two weeks. I promise, we'll do better. Just... give me another week, to make a plan on how to handle getting you into a training session without _me_ getting too worried. And if you need to stop suddenly, a safe way to do that, and... Just give me one more week.” Bart felt his heart ache, at that.

He could understand that. He _could_. It took Aunt Dawn longer than three weeks to be okay with Bart training and fighting.

Aunt Lian had called her a moron, and said Wally was right, but it still took Dawn almost two months to be okay with Bart being taught.

He could handle another week.

“Okay.” He sniffled.

“Okay...” Barry sighed, “Play date is tomorrow. You haven't gone to the last few ones because we didn't know, but Joan said you wanted to come. Will you be okay with everyone?”

Bart thought of Will, laughing and playing with Lian and Dawn on the floor, with blocks, and thought of how Will had asked Bart, a few weeks ago, about the goggles.

He thought of how, in the past, Red Arrow had come to visit their tiny little base, saw that he was blind, and had scooped him up, and hugged him, and said he'd probably be the most badass rebel in all of the rebellion. He thought of how he'd started calling Red Arrow _Granddad_ , instead of _Uncle Will_ , and of Wally laughing, and calling Red an old man, even though Red had hugged Bart tighter to him.

He thought of how Will had hugged him, when Bart whispered _Lian married Aunt Dawn, and helped me when my powers started coming in, and made me blind_. He thought of how Will had promised he could go to him, no matter what.

“I'll be fine.”

Will would be there, and he wasn't his grandfather, not like Red had been, but he was still family, and he still made Bart feel safe, even though he had no reason to not to feel that way.

Barry let Bart go, and headed to the Watchtower for a meeting, and Bart turned his head, when he heard someone walking over.

“It's just me.” Iris said, and Bart could hear her smile. “I'm making dinner, do you want to help?”

“Am I staying for dinner?” Bart asked, confused.

“Yes. Jay and Joan are going to come over, too.” Iris said, “They'll take you home after dinner.”

“Okay.” Bart said, and he didn't know this house as well as the Garrick house, but it was still better than nothing.

Bart was given a rather simple task, if he was being honest with himself, but shaking the chicken into the breading and seasoning was also letting him get some of his frustration out, and he had a feeling Iris knew that.

“I was wondering something.” Iris spoke, as he put the container back on the table in front of him.

“What?”

“Will... he wasn't surprised, or rather, he pretended to be, but we could all tell he wasn't.” Iris said, “When I told the others at play date, that you're blind.” Bart hesitated, at that.

“I told him.” He admitted, “A couple weeks ago, before my goggles broke.” Iris frowned.

“You did?”

“Yeah, he... um...” Bart hesitated again.

“Bart? Sweetie, you can talk to me, about anything.” Iris said.

“AuntDawnisalesbianwithLianandRedArrowbecameagrandfathertome.” Bart said, and it was quiet a moment.

“Oh. … Well, that explains a lot.” Iris sighed, and Bart was sure she was pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why didn't you tell us before?”

“Because I didn't know how you'd react.” Bart admitted.

“You trusted Will.” Iris pointed out.

“Uh, yeah, 'cause he's an openly bisexual man.” The teenager raised an eyebrow. “I knew he wouldn't freak out over his daughter being a lesbian.”

“You _do_ know Barry is bisexual, right?” Iris asked, amused.

Bart's brain short circuited, at that.

“Wh-what?” He asked, looking towards his grandmother.

“Barry's bisexual, Bart. We're both active in Central City's queer community.”

“... Oh.” Bart said, frowning. “Nobody told me _that_ , when I was a kid.”

“Many people like to erase bisexuals, especially when they're with a member of the opposite gender.” Iris replied, “Many people don't believe bisexuality is even a thing, especially straight people.”

“They're annoying.” Bart said, huffing, and Iris laughed.

After Bart's task was finished, he sat in the living room, playing with the twins. Don jumped on him, laughing. Dawn jumped on him next, and soon, Bart was wrestling with them gently.

He heard the door knob turn, and grabbed the twins before the door opened, making the twins whine.

Dinner was mostly talks about school work, and the twins, and the assignment Iris got for next week, and Bart zoned out for most of it.

He hated that he just kept thinking of Red, and Wally, and Aunt Lian, smothering him in love and attention, promising him the he was still their little Speedy, even without his eyesight.

“Bart?” He looked up, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“What?”

“You okay, son?” Jay asked, and Bart nodded.

“Yeah, why?”

“You're crying, Sweetie.” Joan said, worried, and Bart bit his lip.

“I... I was just... just thinkin' of- someone.” He said, not wanting to tell them.

“Was it your other grandfather?” Iris asked gently. “Red, right?” Bart hesitated, but nodded.

“Him and- and my other granddad. He wasn't _really_ my granddad, like Red, but... they pretty much were.”

Wally and Red had been all he had, after Aunt Dawn and Dad had died.

Aunt Lian had been the only one left, after Wally and Red died.

“I'm sorry, Sweetie.” Joan said, and he felt arms circle him, and they were too gentle to be Jay's arms, because Jay's hugs were firmer, than Joan's, and Bart taught himself quickly, just in case, on how to tell the difference between the hugs.

He clung back to her.

Maybe tomorrow he'd talk about it.

Tonight, he wasn't ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments fill me with joy and also motivation 8D
> 
> you can also come chat with me on tumblr at impulsewriter.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> y'all can catch me on tumblr at impulsewriter
> 
> also feel free to leave a comment and kudos because that's the best way to get me to write more tbh lol
> 
> and before anyone asks, my new years resolution is to write and post, even if it's some of my worse ideas. Which this probably is. So. Yeah. This happened 8)


End file.
